


Treats

by spinninginfinity



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-31 07:32:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinninginfinity/pseuds/spinninginfinity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh and Donna get a night off. Trouble is, it coincides with a night full of non-work-related interruptions. </p><p>
  <i>The first knock comes halfway through the movie, right at a really good bit.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Treats

**Author's Note:**

> A very belated, sickeningly cutesy Halloween offering.

‘I’m going to buy a box of candy for the trick-or-treaters,’ Donna tells Josh.

‘That’ll be nice,’ he says absently, and doesn’t think anything more of it.

***

The first knock comes halfway through the movie, right at a really good bit.

‘Can we pause it?’ Donna asks, hitting the button before he can respond.

He doesn’t mind, though; he turns and leans on the arm of the sofa to watch her as she half-runs to the door, and he smiles when he hears her coo over the kids’ costumes.

A thought strikes him as she returns to the sofa. ‘Hey, is this going to happen a lot tonight?’

She shrugs, pressing “Play” before sliding her arms loosely around his waist and resting her head against his chest. ‘I don’t know. Probably not.’

***

‘The candy’s going down really well,’ Donna says cheerfully, bounding over to the sofa after they’ve paused the movie for the third time.

Josh grits his teeth. The candy thing has become less cute. ‘I bet.’

Evidently picking up on his irritation, she tells him sternly, ‘I’m bringing joy to the neighborhood kids, Josh.’

He tugs her against him again. ‘You couldn’t just… let them go somewhere else?’

She looks up at him, all big doleful eyes and pouty mouth. ‘You should see their faces. They’re so sweet. Honestly, if you saw them, you couldn’t turn them down.’

‘Yeah, so don’t see them.’

‘You’re a heartless man,’ she says, nudging him.

‘I’m brutal,’ he agrees, and starts the movie again.

***

Donna’s hands still where they’re twined in Josh’s hair. ‘Do you hear knocking?’

‘No?’ he tries.

She climbs off him and straightens her shirt, which Josh has just spent a delightful few minutes with his hands beneath. ‘You’re a terrible liar. How’s it possible you’re keeping state secrets?’

‘I thought we decided you weren’t gonna answer—’ Josh begins, but she’s across the room and opening the door before he can finish. He ducks out of sight behind the arm of the sofa.

‘I thought we decided you weren’t going to answer the door anymore tonight?’ he finishes, once she’s done chatting to the kids, which takes an astonishing amount of time.

‘No, _you_ decided. Halloween comes but once a year, Josh.’

‘Yeah, and date night comes even less frequently.’

She sighs as she comes back to the sofa, reaching down to brace her hands on his chest as she flings a leg over him and kneels up, her calves pressed either side of his torso. ‘You’re right. Date night is the priority.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yes. So, for the rest of the night the kids can go somewhere else.’ She sweeps her hair out of her face and leans down to kiss him.

***

Josh opens his mouth under Donna’s, running his hands up her back before rolling her beneath him. They’ve moved things to the bedroom, and they haven’t been disturbed in a whole twenty minutes. 

He cups his hand behind her knee, drawing her leg up to wrap it over his waist and sighing into her mouth.

‘Josh,’ she gasps, arching into him, clutching at his upper arms. ‘Josh, I wanna—’

‘Yeah,’ he says breathlessly, pulling back and fumbling with her shirt.

Then they hear it.

‘Donna…’ he begins, catching her look.

She looks helplessly from him to their bedroom door and back again.

‘I’ll be one minute,’ she says, nudging him off her.

‘Oh, come _on_.’

‘It’s too mean, Josh. I’m going to deny them Halloween candy because I’m too busy getting laid?’

He frowns. ‘That’s… kind of what I was hoping, yeah. They’ll understand when they’re older.’

She hops off the bed. ‘One minute,’ she promises.

***

‘Right,’ she says, when she comes back. ‘I swear that was the last time.’

‘Really?’

‘ _Yes_.’

There’s a very tentative knocking sound and Donna’s face falls.

Josh springs up off the bed. ‘I’ll go.’

‘’Really?’ she asks, alarmed.

‘You think I’m going to frighten them?’ he demands.

‘Well, yeah.’

Actually, he is thinking of yelling at whoever’s outside about how it’s getting late and people have lives to get on with, but the small vampire and the slightly taller fairy who is clearly chaperoning her are indeed disarmingly cute, and he blinks at them, all the things he was going to say forgotten.

The smaller girl takes a deep breath and begins, ‘Trick or—?’

‘Treat; I choose treat.’ Josh shoves the entire box of candy at her. ‘Happy Halloween.’

Their faces are a picture. ‘Thank you!’ they shriek in unison, and hurry off down the hall.

Josh turns to the secret service agent who’s posted outside the door for the evening. ‘Why do we pay you, again?’

Michael looks amused. ‘You think you’re about to be kidnapped by a bunch of seven-year-old witches?’

Josh frowns. The threat to anything besides a night of romance with his girlfriend had not occurred to him. ‘You don’t know. It could be a ruse.’

‘They’re all kids who live in the building or guests of kids who live in the building.’ Michael shrugs. ‘It’s Halloween. I figured it’s fun.’

‘It’s date night!’ Josh snaps, after taking a second to get over the revelation that his building is home to anyone under the age of thirty. ‘You’re meant to be on my side! If it’s so fun, why don’t _you_ just give them candy?’

‘Well, if you’d asked me earlier—’

‘We’re all out of candy, okay? That’s the line for the rest of the night.’

‘You’re all out of candy,’ Michael repeats, very seriously. Josh doesn’t stick around long enough to figure out whether he’s being mocked.

‘You gave all the candy away?’ Donna asks, when he closes the door. She’s come out into the living room and is standing with her arms folded.

‘I….’ He gestures weakly toward the door. ‘She was cute.’

Donna sighs, expression softening. ‘It’s okay. I just… I thought it would be a nice thing to do.’

‘It was,’ he assures her. ‘It _was_ nice, Donna. Buying treats for a bunch of children whose existence I hadn't previously noticed? It's extremely nice.'

'You're always up early and back late,' she says. 'That's why you don't know any of our neighbors.'

'Right.' He blinks at her. 'That's not really... My point is, we don’t ever get to spend a whole evening together.’

‘You’re right.’

‘When it’s our own kids, sure, I’ll get totally into the Halloween thing, but for now…’

‘Yeah.’ She steps into his arms, hugging him tightly. Then she suddenly goes very still. ‘Josh?’

‘I know, I just heard what I said.’ He sounds kind of like he’s just seen a venomous snake right in front of them, and doesn’t want to startle it.

‘We haven’t talked about kids,’ she says, voice small.

‘I know we haven’t.’ He steps back. ‘I didn’t wanna scare you. It was just something I said. It just came out.’

She nods, tucking her hair behind her ear. ‘Should we? Is this something we should talk about?’

‘Uh…’ He blows out a long, tremulous breath. ‘Yeah, I—I guess I’d never thought about… with our jobs, I mean. And I don’t know whether I’d make a very good father, but—

‘Josh,’ she says softly, reaching out to touch him. ‘You’d be a fantastic dad.’

‘You think so?’

‘Uh huh.’ She smiles. ‘Just don’t ever give them a whole tub of Halloween candy at once, okay?’

‘Oh, god. Her parents are going to hate me.’

‘Probably. And people are going to think our health initiatives are all talk. I’m kidding,’ she hastens to assure him, catching the alarmed look on his face. She takes his hand, squeezing. ‘I’m totally kidding. And this conversation can wait for another night.’ She inclines her head toward the bedroom. ‘You wanna go treat each other?’

‘Yeah.’ He kisses her hard and then thinks about what she just said, giving her an exasperated look. ‘Are you making Halloween-based puns?’

She grins. ‘I have a few tricks up my sleeve as well.’

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feedback welcome and appreciated as always.


End file.
